Farmers and ranchers who keep livestock often use large round bales for mass storage of feed. Various bale feeders and bale transporting devices have been developed which shred the bale so that the feed is in a form for delivering as feed to livestock. Some of these devices are mobile and allow for the transportation and spreading of the bale. These devices however often damage the feed by removing the leaves from the stems of the feed as the bale is shredded, and do a poor job of removing dust and mold from the feed which can be harmful to livestock eating the feed.
Some bale feeders utilize cutting knives mounted on a rotor to shred bales of feed. These bale feeders have the problem of feed and twine from the bales becoming wrapped around the rotor axle which can cause the rotor to bind. This can lead to decreased cutting efficiency and increased maintenance time since removal of the hay and twine can be time consuming.
Bale feeders may also employ a traveling bed having slats mounted on sprocket driven chains which feed the bale into the rotor or other cutting means for shredding. The sprockets which drive the chains are usually mounted on rotating shafts. The sprockets and shafts, like the rotor, are also susceptible to binding by twine and feed.
Bale feeders having traveling beds may also have the problem of excessive wear of the sprocket mounting shafts and sprockets, and twisting of the chain. This can result in excessive vibration of the feeder and damage to the chain. This problem can be due to deflection of the shaft caused by chain tensioners located at the ends of one of the shafts which tension the chains by applying a force to the ends of the shaft.